Stray Leaves
by Flying Magic Snake
Summary: On Permanent Hiatus: When Kakashi becomes Team Seven's jounin-sensei, he expects a lot of things. However, this Team Seven seems determined to prove him wrong on every single assumption. AU
1. First Impressions

Title: Stray Leaves

Author: The Scarlet Pencil

Rating: T

Genre: Gen, AU, time-travel

Summary: When Kakashi becomes Team Seven's jounin-sensei, he expects a lot of things. However, this Team Seven seems determined to prove him wrong on every single assumption.

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Chapter One: First Impressions

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_If you're confused, you're paying attention. ~ Tom Peters _

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When a jounin received a genin team, there were certain procedures to be followed. First, the academy instructors profiled the prospective genins. Then they sent these profiles to the Hokage, along with recommendations for pairing teammates. It was up to the Hokage, however, to finalize the teams and assign jounin instructors. Finally, at the end of the paperwork chain, the jounins received the student profiles and began the arduous task of mentally preparing themselves to deal with the adolescent brats bristling with badly concealed weaponry.

Needless to say, the jounins felt that they received the short end of the stick in the deal. And Hatake Kakashi was no exception.

To be fair, Kakashi had known this was coming. It was common knowledge that the Uchiha heir would need someone experienced with Uchihas to train him, and Kakashi was the only one who understood how to fight with the Sharingan. Still, Kakashi wasn't keen on the idea of having another team. Especially one that would be depending entirely on him for protection until they got the basics down.

Kakashi had watched his old team die one by one. He was not interested in watching it again.

His reluctance only deepened as he carefully memorized the profiles. While it was true that genin fresh out of the academy were generally weak fighters and teammates, it seemed like he had been stuck with the absolute dregs. Uchiha Sasuke, the top of the class genius that the Council saw as a chance to gain a controllable Uchiha clan, was a loner consumed by revenge. Although Haruno Sakura had been just below Sasuke in the bookwork, she no particular talents in the field and had been drafted into the team because she was exactly in the middle of the class.

And of course, there was Naruto.

Out of all the genins, Naruto was the one Kakashi dreaded seeing the most. Not because Naruto was the Kyuubi vessel. Not because Naruto was an infamous prankster. Not because Naruto was the "eternal dead last" of the academy.

Naruto was Minato-sensei's son. A son that Kakashi had never attempted to contact, despite the fact the boy had no family, friends, or support of any kind.

Kakashi was not certain that he could face that. But these were his Hokage's orders, and it was his job to see them through.

He steeled himself for the worst.

---

Based on the profiles, Kakashi had a pretty good idea of how his students would react to each other the first day. Sasuke was a loner like he had been and would probably be loftily ignoring the other two. Sakura was like Rin and would probably be lecturing Naruto for whatever Obito-like thing he had done to irritate her. The parallels between his old team and this new one would have been funny if they weren't so bloody frightening.

In any case, he was prepared for a disaster the minute he walked into that classroom. Heaven knew that the members of Team Minato had nearly killed each other when they were introduced to each other. Kakashi did not have high hopes for his own team.

Taking a deep breath, Hatake Kakashi pushed open the door exactly three hours and fifty-two minutes late.

Silence.

With the infamous Uzumaki Naruto in the room, Kakashi had been expecting some sort of childish prank. The profiles had stressed that Naruto desperately sought attention, generally by acting the class clown. With that in mind, there should have been at least a chalkboard eraser stuck in the door or something.

Instead, Kakashi found himself staring into the moderately interested faces of his genins, who were clustered together near the windows. Naruto was slouched over his desk, looking bored out of his mind. This instantly set Kakashi on edge. The absence of an obvious prank meant one of two things: either Naruto's profile was wrong or Naruto had a very elaborate prank set up.

The former was an unfortunate possibility. The teachers were very good at creating detailed profiles of the children, but they had been known to let unstable ninja through unnoticed. Uchiha Itachi was the most infamous, and Mizuki was another recent example. In addition, almost all of the academy instructors were old enough to remember the Kyuubi incident, which added to the possibility of malicious sabotage to the profiles. In fact, Kakashi had noticed that aside from the comments of one Umino Iruka, who was ruthlessly fair in his assessments of all three genins, the teachers tended to fawn over Sasuke, disparage Naruto, and tactfully ignore Sakura.

But despite the fact that Naruto's profile had obviously tried to make the kid look worse than he really was, Kakashi still felt that the latter option, an elaborate prank, was more likely. You didn't gain a village-wide reputation as a nearly uncatchable prankster by doing nothing, even if the village didn't like you.

Kakashi realized with a twinge of discomfort that his students were waiting for him to make the first move. Yet another thing that didn't fit their profiles. Sasuke, perhaps, would have remained stoically silent, but both Sakura and Naruto were listed as talkative enough to have said _something_ by now.

"Yo," Kakashi said, breaking the silence. The genin nodded politely, but still said nothing. Kakashi decided that he really needed time to reassess these kids. "Meet me on the roof in one minute," he said, and used the replacement jutsu to teleport to the roof.

Instantly, pandemonium broke loose. Kakashi's foot snagged a tripwire, a cloud of shuriken shot towards him, and a low-level genjutsu began wreaking havoc with his sense of balance. Kakashi twisted away from the shuriken. He quickly performed a seal and threw off the genjutsu, wondering how on earth Naruto managed one when his profile said that he was hopeless with the subject.

Kakashi looked up and saw a fireball heading right at him. Ah, he thought, I understand.

The fireball exploded.

---

The trio didn't even have the decency to pretend to be innocent at the sight of their charred teacher. They were sitting across from Kakashi, Naruto grinning outright and Sasuke and Sakura flanking the boy, both radiating amusement.

Kakashi shook his head at them. "What," he asked, "possessed you to attack your jounin-sensei the first day you met him?"

"Well, you see, Sensei," Sakura began.

"When we heard that our sensei would be the great Hatake Kakashi," Sasuke continued.

"We wanted to make a good first impression." Naruto finished, beaming.

Kakashi just stared at them. Obviously, the profiles were dead wrong. The one thing they had stressed, even Umino Iruka, was that these three would not work together unless forced to.

But Naruto had directed a prank that he could not possibly have pulled off without extensive teamwork with his teammates. Moreover, Sasuke and Sakura had agreed to the prank and cooperated under Naruto's direction to pull it off.

All of which blatantly contradicted the profiles. Kakashi sighed. He would have to start entirely from scratch to gather his intel on these kids.

"You know, you're not genin yet," Kakashi said finally, noting that none of them looked surprised at this. "You have to pass a final exam with a sixty-six percent rate of failure."

Naruto nodded. "We'll pass any old test you throw at us, Kakashi-sensei!"

Interesting, Kakashi thought. Neither Sasuke nor Sakura had said much yet. That meant that Naruto was their leader, or at the very least, spokesperson. Which was odd. What had Sasuke and Sakura seen in Naruto that had garnered their support so completely?

Out loud, he drawled. "I have no doubt that you will. Which is why we're skipping the test." Ah, a reaction! Kakashi thought gleefully, finally drawing some surprise out of the genin. "The point of the test is to drill teamwork into you. However, given that you've already collaborated on this... prank, I see no reason to waste time with it."

He stood and looked over the now official genin. "Welcome to Team Seven," Kakashi said, "Be at the bridge at six o'clock tomorrow morning." He disappeared, feeling intensely grateful to get away from the kids.

Kakashi had a lot of thinking to do in order to be prepared for them tomorrow, after all.

---


	2. First Steps

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Chapter Two: First Steps

_No battle plan survives contact with the enemy. - von Moltke the Elder_

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"Kakashi," the Hokage said. Kakashi bowed, and said nothing.

He had appeared in the Hokage's office with all the training of an ex-Anbu. Silently, without so much as a hint of gunpowder smoke or a trace of killing intent to betray his position. But it was a testament to the abilities of the old man sitting with his back to Kakashi that the man not only knew a killer was in the room, but also the exact identity of said killer.

Truly a formidable man, even if age had sapped some of his former strength.

"Well," the Hokage said, drawing in a deep breath of smoke from his pipe and swiveling his chair to face Kakashi. "Report."

"Team Seven passes, Hokage-sama," Kakashi replied.

There were three people on earth who could tell if Hatake Kakashi was telling them the entire, perfect truth. Two of them were already dead.

The third person was currently looking at Kakashi like a tiger stalking its prey. "Is that so?" The Hokage exhaled a cloud of smoke. "How did they respond to the bell test?"

"I didn't give it to them, Hokage-sama." Kakashi said. At the Hokage's surprised look, he swiftly added, "The bell test's purpose is to instill teamwork, however they showed advanced teamwork in coordinating a... prank, sir."

"Your charred appearance, I take it?"

Kakashi nodded.

The Hokage sighed. "You do realize that this will cause talk of unfairness? You have systematically failed every other team assigned to you because of the bell test. The one team you pass; you do not give the bell test. The other jounin already know that Sasuke was specifically assigned to you. They will assume that you did not give this team the bell test in order to ensure that Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto could not interfere with Sasuke passing."

This was not something Kakashi had foreseen, and he cursed himself internally. To be quite honest he had been rather unnerved by the genin's behavior. That was probably because of his preconception that this team would act like his old one instead of like... whatever in the world Team Seven was.

As always, however, Kakashi projected outward calm. "I believe that Team Seven will be able to overcome such doubts quite quickly." The Hokage raised an eyebrow.

There was silence for a moment, and Kakashi wished to god he knew what the old man was thinking.

"You really believe in this team, don't you?" the Hokage finally said.

"Completely." Kakashi said, and he was surprised to realize that it was true. He had barely met the kids but he could just see the raw potential they had if they could torch a jounin the first time they worked together. Not to mention the fact that they actually worked together, which was something Kakashi had found to be all too rare among the other genin teams he had tested.

Nonexistent, to be exact.

No, if Kakashi was going to be a jounin-sensei, he would stake his reputation on Team Seven before any of those other brats he had seen.

The Hokage dismissed him after that, and Kakashi left for his apartment. He could have taken the rooftops, but instead he chose to meander his way home through Konoha's streets. He needed some time to think.

It was true that he believed that his team had great potential, even from their short meeting. But that didn't mean that Kakashi trusted them. In fact, just the opposite was true.

Kakashi didn't exactly know why he was covering for Team Seven. Or even why he_ felt _like he was covering for them. As he trudged down the road to his apartment, he sighed. They were his responsibility now. In order to protect them, he would have to understand how they interacted. The profiles were useless, practically depicting entirely different people than the three new genins... Kakashi stopped dead.

It was theoretically possible that enemy ninja had replaced the three. That would explain why they seemed somewhat... off from expectations. But, Kakashi thought, resuming his walk, that was highly unlikely. If enemy ninja were impersonating the three, they would attempt to appear as normal as possible. The way the three were acting was drawing attention towards themselves, not focusing it elsewhere.

Unless this was a highly elaborate infiltration, with Team Seven serving as distractions while other agents quietly slipped in unnoticed. But no, the three were only distracting him, so there was no opportunity for other agents to appear in any other position. Kakashi was an infamous jounin, true, but he wasn't in a position that would hinder spies at the moment. Distracting him would serve no real purpose.

With that idea ruled out, the only viable theory was that the Genin had simply avoided accurate profiling. Kakashi let himself into his apartment. He was being paranoid, of course. But being paranoid was a lot better then being dead.

Or worse, failing to protect the village from a possible threat.

In any case, he'd start observing his genins very closely tomorrow.

---

The following morning, Kakashi made his way to the memorial stone. By the time the sun had begun to peek over the horizon, Kakashi had been at the memorial stone for two hours and had decided on a plan of action.

Like all great plans, it was simple. Throw the genin into as many varied situations as possible, sit back, and observe.

Kakashi prided himself on his simple plans.

So, after some light interrogation at the bridge, they'd start with some nasty D-rank missions, which Kakashi would conveniently disappear from–

The bridge. He had been thrown for such a loop, he had forgotten to tell them to show up at the bridge. Which meant he had to go to their houses and fetch them instead.

Kakashi sighed and looked gloomily at the memorial stone. "Maybe you rubbed off on me too much."

Obito was silent.

---

He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but Naruto's house was so _ordinary_ Kakashi felt rather cheated. It didn't look like the home of a troublemaker; everything was far too clean and well kept. In fact, it looked like Naruto had just cleaned recently, perhaps a couple of days ago. Except for the side room, which Naruto had converted into some sort of paradise for scrolls. That area was a battlefield of scraps of crisp paper, discarded brushes, and new ink. That was understandable though, this was Naruto's first day as a genin, so he probably would want to prepare.

Rifling through his students belongings was interesting and informational, but that still left Kakashi the problem of figuring out just where the heck his student _was_. Of all the days for Naruto to pick to be out, Kakashi groused. He'd have to find Naruto later. First, he'd collect Sasuke and Sakura...

Except they weren't home either. Kakashi didn't spend much time at the Uchiha compound (even after all these years, it didn't feel right to trespass those walls. The memory of Obito sitting outside on a porch, pretending not to hear his father calling him a failure while Kakashi had stood frozen a few feet away was still haunting him.) He spent more time at Sakura's house, where her mother insisted on pouring him a cup of tea ("Ah, no, I couldn't–" "But you simply must, dear–") and then proceeded to thoroughly chew him out ("If my little girl is hurt out there while pursuing this ninja nonsense I'll hold you responsible young man–").

Kakashi wandered back towards the bridge, feeling more than a little put upon. Normal jounin-sensei didn't have trouble like this. Probably.

He was still grumbling to himself when he caught sight of three figures on the bridge and hid himself out of sheer ingrained reflex.

Team Seven was waiting for him on the bridge.

---

A normal person would have walked up to the bridge, expressed surprise at how everyone happened to appear at the meeting spot even though said meeting spot had not been named, and gone on with their lives.

Kakashi was an ex-Anbu. An ex-Anbu working with a team he knew nothing about, a team which had already gotten the jump on him. So Kakashi felt no qualms at all about eavesdropping on the genin.

He waited for a while and was beginning to think that he should reveal himself when Sakura finally spoke.

"Do you think we should go look for him? It's not like he told us to show up here."

Sasuke shook his head. "We may not have set a meeting place yesterday, but if we stay in one location long enough he will find us."

Naruto snickered at that. "I think we might have unnerved him." Kakashi winced from his hiding spot.

"And there's nothing weird about managing to freak out a jounin." Sakura muttered.

They fell silent again. Kakashi waited a few more minutes, but it didn't look like the trio was going to start talking again. So he merely appeared five feet away from them, noted the way the three instantly took defensive positions, and said out loud, "I really do have my work cut out for me, don't I?"

If only he knew.

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	3. First Missions

AN: To everyone who pointed out the continuity error in the second chapter, thank you. I plan on rewriting this fic eventually, and I'll clear that up then. Thank you for pointing that out, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

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Chapter Three: First Missions

_I never know how much of what I say is true. - Bette Midler_

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Kakashi found D-rank missions to be much more enjoyable than he remembered. Perhaps it was the chance to personally meet some of the many villagers he protected. Perhaps it was the peace that these assignments offered compared to the hectic assassination missions that usually ended in Kakashi's near death, followed by pay that really seemed rather inadequate to pay for bruised arms that couldn't be used for weeks.

Perhaps it was the fact that Kakashi could disappear to read his book while his minions–genin, he meant genin–earned money for him.

Not that Kakashi strayed too far away from them. He needed to observe them, after all. Thankfully, he had begun to make some progress with them.

To start with, Naruto was definitely the de facto leader when Kakashi wasn't around. It was subtle, but when Naruto wanted something done he'd catch the eye of one of his two teammates and they would do it. There was an amazing amount of synchronization among the three that most people wouldn't pick up on. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Kakashi was specifically looking for _any_ odd behavior, he probably would have missed it. Or at least, he would have noticed and chalked it up to a coincidence. But it happened far too often to be coincidental.

This pointed to the idea that the three had been training with each other for a long time. Kakashi would have to research that later. The profiles hadn't mentioned anything of the sort, but they had already proven to be worthless.

Then there was Sakura. She possessed an aura of confidence and capability that Kakashi had never before run across in a girl her age. Self-confidence was something teenage girls often struggled with, but Sakura seemed very much at peace with herself and her abilities. Abilities which were far beyond the simple textbook level material Sakura supposedly was at.

Sakura also seemed very certain of where she wanted to end up in life. Kakashi found this out while helping her pin laundry to their employer's clothesline. The genin had divided up the labor (Naruto volunteered to weed the garden with his kage bunshin, Sasuke took dusting, leaving Sakura with the laundry), and Kakashi took the opportunity to talk with Sakura alone.

It was obvious that Sakura had already learned that Kakashi offering help was a rare event to be treated with extreme suspicion. But after her initial blank look of surprise, she acted like there was nothing out of the ordinary about Kakashi folding the linen neatly beside her.

How professional. Kakashi had to give her credit for not asking what was going on immediately. But he wanted information, so it was time to start digging.

"So, Sakura," he paused to make sure that she was paying attention. "What are your plans for the future?"

She was silent for a while, considering the question. Finally, she said, "I will become a medic nin."

Now that was fascinating. The phrasing, more so than the goal. Many kunoichi had starry-eyed ambitions of becoming medics after hearing about the numerous exploits of Tsunade the Sannin. But Sakura spoke with confidence, as if it was a simple fact that she would one day attain her goal.

It reminded him of Naruto, to some extent.

"Oh?" Kakashi replied smoothly, carefully wording his questions to sound just a tad doubtful. "What makes you think that?"

"I have good chakra control," Sakura replied. "I'm excellent at memorization—my grades at the academy show that. I'm certainly not squeamish around blood." She smiled, and Kakashi almost swore that there was a bitterness in Sakura's expression that normally showed itself in old, retired ninja. Ninja who had been through long, numbing wars. She continued, her tone now lighthearted, "I'd be in the wrong profession if I was afraid of a bit blood, right, Sensei?"

"True," Kakashi replied. _Unfortunately, _he left unsaid. "But your talents could be used for other areas as well. Why choose a medic nin specifically?"

Sakura didn't have to pause to think about her answer. "Because I will be useful. I will not be left behind." _By them,_ she implied. _By Naruto and Sasuke._

The conversation had ended there. Naruto ran up and interrupted by declaring that he was finished with the weeding. Kakashi didn't mind. He had gathered a veritable mine of information from their talk, and he needed to think it over.

In the end, Kakashi decided that at the very least Sakura was an insanely mature girl for her age. The exact opposite of Rin, who had giggled and hovered over a young Kakashi like a rabid dog with a favorite bone.

The day after that mission, Kakashi left a pile of medical books on Sakura's doorstep.

Thus, Kakashi started working on the third member of his nut case of a team.

Sasuke was... interesting. He was quiet almost to the point of being rude and obviously the most experienced fighter on the team. The profiles had spoken of arrogance and disturbing tendencies towards revenge for his fallen clan. By all rights, it was Sasuke who should have been second in command.

But Naruto held that position, and Sasuke never seemed to bother with challenging Naruto's authority. Naruto was the decision maker; Sasuke and Sakura were enforcers of those decisions.

But that was where things got subtly weird.

Naruto treated Sasuke and Sakura like equals for the most part. On the D-rank missions, Kakashi observed that Naruto generally let them pick what tasks they wanted to complete. In sparring, they all fought and critiqued each other with a good deal of camaraderie. On Naruto's part, Kakashi felt it was genuine. It might be cliché to say, but the boy really did wear his emotions on his sleeve. Even though ninja were trained to deceive others, Kakashi believed that Naruto really did view Sasuke as an equal, a friend, maybe even a brother.

It was all so nice and innocent that Kakashi wondered if there wasn't something darker underneath their relationship. Naruto and Sasuke reminded him of Obito and himself when he was younger. They too were rivals of a sort, but Sasuke never took things too far. Unlike his younger self. Yet there was still something between them that was never spoken of, never alluded to, but still tainted and colored all their actions.

Ironically, it was Sakura who highlighted the underlying wrongness of the team's dynamics. Far from adoring Sasuke like the profiles (why did Kakashi even bother mentioning them anyway, the things were utterly useless) said she did, Sakura seemed wary of him. It wasn't often, but Kakashi sometimes caught her looking at Sasuke with a frown, as if she felt something wasn't quite right. And whenever the two genin interacted with Naruto, Sakura was quick to intervene if she felt Sasuke was being unfair (_insubordinate, _Kakashi thought)to Naruto.

None of this made any sense to Kakashi. As far as he was concerned, the trio were aliens from some distant planet, and Kakashi was hitting a dead end on figuring out what exactly made them tick.

Thus, Kakashi decided to do something he had promised himself he would never do: ask Maito Gai for advice.

---


	4. First Questions

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Chapter Four: First Questions

_The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they're going to be when you kill them. - __William Clayton _

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If you were to ask an average ninja from Kumo who Konoha's most infamous jounin was he would bitterly sneer, "That Namikaze." If you were to tactfully ask about currently alive ninja, he would mutter, "Hatake, the copy ninja."

Actually, if you were to pose this question to almost any ninja from almost every ninja village, major or minor, the answer would be the same. Hatake Kakashi was somewhat legendary, at least in ninja circles. Most civilians had never heard of Kakashi, or any other jounin for that matter. Assassinations went so much easier if the targets didn't know anything about their potential attackers.

In any case, there is one major exception to this rule. If you were to ask a Konoha ninja who their most infamous jounin was, he would shudder and whisper, "Maito Gai."

---

Kakashi meandered towards the training grounds. He had long since learned that the best way to approach Gai was to pretend that you weren't approaching him at all, but that you were instead coincidentally meeting him while doing something else infinitely more interesting.

It was troublesome to get Gai involved in this at all. At some level, it was an admission that Kakashi could not handle these kids on his own. Of course, like any good ninja, Kakashi knew his own strengths and weaknesses. There was a time to ask for help. But it was different with Gai, because Maito Gai had singlehandedly saved Kakashi from going insane after Rin's death, and now Kakashi refused to show any weakness to the man. It was Kakashi's way of pretending that he was fine, that he didn't need Gai's help to function anymore.

Of course, Gai knew that wasn't the case and made sure to check in on Kakashi as often as possible by annoying him. Their friendship was built on an odd mixture of need and respect, and would have fallen apart if Kakashi and Gai had been normal people.

But of course, they weren't.

Even though relying on Gai brought back loathed memories of his own helplessness, Kakashi wouldn't trust anyone else with something like this. When it came down to it, Gai could be counted on to keep Kakashi's secrets, and that was the most precious bond of friendship a shinobi could have. The only bond, really.

So Kakashi strolled right by the training ground where Gai was drilling his protégé, Rock Lee. One step, two steps, three...

"Kakashi!" Gai's voice boomed in Kakashi's ear. It was one of Gai's more irritating talents, his ability to move so quickly the unaided eye couldn't follow it. The effect was similar to that of the teleportation jutsu, with one significant difference. Skilled jounin could sense the chakra used for teleportation and be on their defensive. No one could sense Gai's approach. Back in their ANBU days, Gai had killed many combatants who were relying on their ability to sense chakra instead of paying attention to their surroundings.

Now though, Kakashi was busy pretending to have retained his sense of hearing after being subjected to the full force of Gai's shout. Or not.

"Eh? Did you say something?" Kakashi drawled.

Lee looked horrified at the disrespect Kakashi was showing his idol. The boy was about to say something when Gai struck a pose.

"Cool as ever, my rival!" A flash of far too white teeth. Gai always was a neat freak, Kakashi thought. "How may I help you? Perhaps you have come to raise a challenge?"

"Perhaps," Kakashi echoed, watching Gai's face.

For a split second Gai's face turned serious. I understand, that face said. Gai knew that Kakashi only acknowledged their little competitions when Kakashi was in need of something.

Then the seriousness was gone, and Gai spun around to face his student. "Lee!"

"Yes, Gai-sensei!" The boy stood up even straighter, a feat Kakashi didn't think was possible.

"My rival and I have business to discuss! Five hundred laps around Konoha!"

"Yosh! If I cannot complete that, I shall climb the Hokage's Mountain three hundred times in a row!"

Kakashi shook his head as the boy tore off, the rising cloud of dust marking his progress. "You're insane, Gai. And now you're infecting the next generation."

"As are you," Gai rejoined, turning back to face Kakashi. "I have heard that you have taken on a genin team of your own. I look forward to our teams competing." Another flashy grin. Kakashi resisted the urge to shake his head. Gai had always had an uncanny ability to arrive instantly at the root of whatever problem Kakashi was having.

"You'd like them," Kakashi said. "They're an odd bunch. Best teamwork I've ever seen."

Gai looked at Kakashi at those words, and Kakashi forced his body to not tense up and hide what his real thoughts were. After all, the point of this visit was to enlist Gai's help, it was perfectly alright--

Actually, no. It wasn't alright. But Kakashi still wasn't going to let his issues get in the way of his self imposed assignment. If he didn't do this, if he couldn't figure out his students, there was a possibility that he could get them killed. Such things had happened often in ANBU before Minato-sensei had instituted reforms, whenever a new commander took over a squad he was unfamiliar with. If the commander was unfamiliar with how each member reacted, the precise plans ANBU work required could fall apart in a bloody instant.

Minato-sensei had made training sessions for the entire ANBU mandatory, so that everyone in the organization would be able to take on any role seamlessly. But before that, ANBU had been notoriously short lived. Well, shorter lived than they were now, anyway.

In any case, it was important on many levels for Kakashi to figure out his team. He didn't want to outright ask them except as a last resort. If they were hiding something, it was important to not put them on their guards.

In addition to the fact that Kakashi trusted Gai, Gai was an expert on teamwork. In fact, Gai was listed as Konoha's "Best Ninja to be Partnered with in a Crisis." Of course, he was also listed as "Most Freakishly Embarrassing Partner" and "Number One Workaholic Ninja," but there was no such thing as a perfect partner anyway.

"I see," Gai finally said. He was thoughtful for a moment. Kakashi waited. Suddenly, Kakashi found himself blinded by a flash of white teeth.

"My rival!" Gai boomed. "I believe that our teams would benefit from a meeting! In fact, I insist on a joint mission! After all, our students are from different classes and have never met before. Konoha's youth must have time to meet and learn from each other!"

"If you insist," Kakashi drawled. They talked for a few more minute before Kakashi made his escape. He felt rather good about how things went. He hadn't wanted to contaminate Gai's opinion of the kids by mentioning his lists of suspicions. Not that Kakashi was worried about Gai thinking him paranoid (all ninja were paranoid, not just Kakashi.) Rather, it just didn't do any good to get an outside opinion if you planted suggestions in that person's head.

Besides, Kakashi had heard plenty of rumors about Gai's team. The meeting of Team Gai and Team Seven was certain to be an interesting spectacle.

-


	5. First Fears

AN: I apologize to everyone for the lateness of this chapter. A lot of my relatives have been sick lately, and I just haven't had the time to write at all. I haven't abandoned this fic though, so I hope you enjoy this chapter.

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Chapter Five: First Fears

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_The cautious seldom err. - Confucius_

-

It wasn't long before Gai sent along a message to Kakashi detailing his plans. In true Maito Gai form, the message was found in an almost empty milk carton in Kakashi's refrigerator and was encrypted in a code that utterly failed to be innocuous. Kakashi sighed and set about cracking it.

"_Dear Mr. Youthful Ninja,"_ the letter began. "_We apologize, but the price of our milk has gone up. But please, give us the opportunity to explain!"_

Kakashi set the note down, momentarily distracted. This was absurd, even by Gai's standards. Then again, there was that persistent rumor about the Hokage refusing to let Gai go on undercover missions. Something about Gai throwing the mission when he tried to fight some important somebody-or-other's body guard for some perceived slight of honor. Kakashi had dismissed those rumors as being too bizarre to be true, but...

Kakashi picked up the letter again.

"_We have set up a date for a seminar promoting cow friendliness..."_

Kakashi incinerated the letter.

Anyway, he knew enough. Gai had a mission lined up. All he'd have to do is wait for the Hokage to give it to their teams jointly. The details didn't matter.

At least, the details weren't worth sacrificing his already tenuous sanity for.

-

The week progressed as usual, on the surface. However, Kakashi slowly began to feel an underlying tension in his team. It was evident in dozens of little ways. Team Seven was training harder than ever, which was a minor miracle. Kakashi had never seen a genin team train together like his rookies. Together being the key word.

Kakashi had trained like a madman as a member of Team Minato. But he had only attended the bare minimum of team exercises. There had been times when Minato had literally been forced to order Kakashi to participate.

Not his prouder moments.

His case, of course, was extreme, but it wasn't uncommon for young genin to underrate the importance of teamwork. It was the reason why Konoha gave genin to jounin commanders. Drill teamwork in the brats above all else.

But Team Seven appeared to be the exception that proved the rule. All three were very proficient in their various fields. Sasuke, as expected due to his Uchiha heritage, was going to be a ninjutsu specialist. He was mostly concerned with increasing his chakra reserves. Sakura had definitely decided to expend her energy mastering medical ninjutsu, which made Kakashi wonder if she, like so many other kunoichi her age, idolized Tsunade the Sannin. Naruto, no doubt thanks to the Kyuubi, was practically a walking reservoir of chakra. Kakashi had found that Naruto loved learning new techniques, but Naruto loved finding new and unusual uses for said techniques even more.

Most of these new uses were due to Naruto's signature jutsu, the Kage Bunshin. Naruto's ability to multiply into a small army in seconds was on it's own, quite formidable. But Naruto had a talent for taking small, harmless jutsu and turning them into potentially battle-winning annoyances.

For example, Kakashi taught his team a water jutsu designed to condense water vapor into drinking water. It was a technique he had copied off a Mist nin, and in Konoha's moderately humid climate it produced a small trickle of water, enough for a single drink. It was a slow technique, and absolutely useless in more arid climates, but it took a fair degree of chakra control. Perfect for his talented genin.

Sakura, with her excellent chakra control, performed the jutsu correctly on her first time. She then allowed Sasuke to copy her with the Sharingan. Which was interesting in two respects, first Sakura's willingness to share with her team, and second the fact that Sasuke had asked permission to copy first. Most Sharingan users... most _Uchiha,_ had had a tendency to copy first, ask questions later, even when allies were involved. But then again, Sasuke seemed surprisingly non-committal about his clan. On the few occasions Sasuke talked about his family, Kakashi couldn't really discern Sasuke's real feelings on the matter.

Kakashi wondered if Sasuke knew himself.

In any case, it was Naruto who was the most interesting out of the three. It took him a few tries to get the jutsu right, but when he did, a torrent of water resulted that drenched his shoes (and Sakura's, who was unlucky enough to be standing next to him.)

After a loud, angry argument and an equally loud, pain-induced apology, Team Seven found that they could no longer practice the jutsu because Naruto had inadvertently "wrung" all the water out of the air. Thus, the training session ended a half success. At least the kids had learned the jutsu, Kakashi decided. Naruto just needed, as always, to work on reducing his chakra output. As he left, though, Kakashi noted a thoughtful look on Naruto's face that quickly disappeared.

The reason for the thoughtful look became evident next day, during a sparring match. Sasuke and Sakura had collaborated to cover the field in paper bombs set to go off on touch. Naruto quickly preformed the Kage Bunshin jutsu, and each of his clones jumped into the air. Kakashi waited for them to fall and set off the bombs.

Instead, each of Naruto's clones formed a familiar set of hand signs. The same, uncontrollable torrent of water appeared, soaking the area and rendering the paper bombs useless.

Naruto still ended up losing that sparring match, but it was still a testament to Naruto's penchant for the unexpected. And while the use of the jutsu in that manner was highly situational, it was still a technique that could prove useful. Ninja prepared for every eventually were ninja who survived, after all.

In any case, Team Seven was under normal conditions more obsessed with training, individual and team, than any other genin team Kakashi had ever witnessed. (Team Gai didn't count, because as far as Kakashi could tell, Gai and his protege weren't human.)

But as the week went on, Kakashi noticed little things. The usually subtle chain of command was showing up more often. Naruto would sometimes bark out orders directly to Sakura and Sasuke, who followed them unquestioningly. Sakura too was more bossy than usual. Unlike Naruto, her orders were always politely worded as requests. Kakashi still didn't understand how the chain of command had evolved. He understood why Naruto led, he was good at it. But Kakashi would have guessed Sasuke to be the second in command, not Sakura. He also would have expected Sasuke to balk at taking orders from either of his teammates, but he just took it with a strange complacency that didn't really fit.

Friday was the oddest day of all. All three of the genin started complaining about wanting a more difficult mission. Which was natural enough, they'd had quite a few months of D-ranks. If Kakashi hadn't known Gai was planning a joint mission, he would have given it to them. They were obviously more than capable of doing a C-rank mission. D-ranks were normally reserved for teams that needed help on their teamwork anyway, which was not Team Seven's problem at all. But he knew what was coming down the pipeline and cheerfully denied them.

The result was quite unexpected.

They kept on about it for a while, for one thing. Team Seven was normally very professional, but for some reason they were very stuck on the idea. Once it was clear to them that Kakashi wasn't going to move from his position, they became very quiet. Kakashi pretended to read his book, and thus noticed Sasuke and Sakura give Naruto helpless, questioning glances once or twice. Naruto stared at Kakashi meditatively.

It was odd behavior, and it was enough to cause him to trail Naruto, as the ringleader, around town after he had dismissed his students. Naruto seemed quite normal, if terribly hard to follow (Kakashi nearly lost him twice, a testament to Naruto's subterfuge skills since no one wearing that shade of orange should have been able to disappear at all.)

He listened as Naruto met up with Umino Iruka at Ichiraku's, and felt a little better after hearing Naruto complain to Iruka about the lack of mission. Iruka yelled back about how Naruto wasn't ready for such a mission. Kakashi filed Iruka's strange protectiveness under his list of Naruto-related anomalies. Then again, Naruto _did_ have a knack for making loyal friends out of the strangest people.

Maybe that explained Team Seven's general weirdness.

He nearly gave up watching Naruto for the night. But if there was one thing ANBU had drilled into Kakashi, it was to take no chances. Thus, he continued to follow Naruto after he waved goodbye to Iruka.

It was getting late, and Kakashi was wondering when Naruto was going to head home when he suddenly realized that Naruto had passed a certain storefront for the third time in half an hour. Warning bells went off in Kakashi's mind, but it was too late.

He followed Naruto until, finally, the clone dispersed. Kakashi hadn't even noticed the switch. He had no way of knowing when Naruto had created the clone, or where the real Naruto had been while Kakashi was watching the clone.

Kakashi felt very glad that he had enlisted Gai's help after all.


End file.
